DFG Expands its Presence in Latin America / German House of Science and Innovation Opens

DFG Expands its Presence in Latin America / German House of Science and Innovation Opens

With an expanded presence and in a new environment, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) aims to further strengthen research cooperation between Germany and Latin America with a focus on Brazil. In São Paulo – the most important research and business location in Latin America – the German House of Science and Innovation (DWIH) was opened on 14 February. The opening ceremony by German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle and the president of Brazil's National Council for Scientific and Technological Development, CNPq, Professor Glaucius Oliva, is also the start signal for a new DFG Office in Latin America, which is based in the DWIH.

From here, the DFG hopes to further expand existing and establish new contacts with research funding organisations, universities, research institutions as well as researchers in Latin America. In the centre of the activities is Brazil. In the world's fifth largest country, science, technology and innovation have experienced remarkable growth in the past ten years; no other Latin American country invests as much in research and in the promotion of early career researchers, making Brazil particularly interesting to the DFG as well. Other priority countries of the DFG cooperation are Argentina, Chile, Columbia and Mexico.

The DFG Office follows the growing interest in cooperation between researchers from Germany and Latin America, which has already been demonstrated in recent years by an increasing number of funded projects. The majority of these are jointly funded by Latin American partner organisations, whereby the spectrum spans from preparatory and individual projects to larger research associations such as Research Units and International Research Training Groups. Since 2009 alone, the DFG has approved more than 170 research collaborations in Brazil and the four other priority countries in Latin America with partners in Germany. Funding from the German side for these projects totalled 19 million euros.

For its intensified activities, the DFG sees the new German House of Science and Innovation (DWIH) in São Paulo as a good starting point. In addition to this, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and many German universities and universities of applied science are represented here. There are just as many German research organisations, universities and universities of applied science active in São Paulo under a single roof as are in, for example, New York. This leads to greater visibility for each of the individual partners in the DWIH as well as for Germany as a whole as a research location.